First Timers Trip, July 15-22 2018

[Lstar311]

Forgot to mention that on Friday according to my fit bit we walked 7.5 miles!! What!!!

 

[schumigirl]

Shame the weather caused a hitch...…..but you made the best of it...….

RRR is rough as heck if you aren't at the front...….and yes, the climb isn't really as bad as it looks...….but it can give you a real bumper of a headache. Such a shame as it is such a good ride!!

Last day already coming up??

Oh you did well with the walking!!! It`s surprising how many miles we do walk there considering the parks are sometimes called small!!!

 

[angryduck71]

311

Hey! I know who they are!

 

[schumigirl]

Hey! I know who they are!

I don't

 

[pattyw]

Too bad about the storms that kept you from trying the CB lazy river! Those Florida storms can mess up plans!
And RRR! eek! I could never try it! That first climb scares me so!! Sorry that you didn't enjoy it. But you are a brave soul!! DH and my Ds's like the ride, but it's not one that they go on each trip!

 

[HM]

Thanks for the report. I am taking my daughter next week for a quick trip before she starts her graduate work. I had forgotten that Fast and Furious was now open (wasn't in December) and that there was a castle show this summer. So glad to know we can do those things now. We, too, like to do the pools in the afternoon, so I'm a bit worried about the rain/storms, but are hoping for the best. So glad you liked your family vacation and look forward to your last morning post. Also....how did you feel about leaving the grandmas behind after the trip was over. Do you think they would have liked it....or was just your immediate family going the best choice?

 

[Lstar311]

Shame the weather caused a hitch...…..but you made the best of it...….

RRR is rough as heck if you aren't at the front...….and yes, the climb isn't really as bad as it looks...….but it can give you a real bumper of a headache. Such a shame as it is such a good ride!!

Last day already coming up??

Oh you did well with the walking!!! It`s surprising how many miles we do walk there considering the parks are sometimes called small!!!

It is a shame I really thought it looked like so much fun! The music part is such a cool idea!

Yes, last day already

 

[Lstar311]

Too bad about the storms that kept you from trying the CB lazy river! Those Florida storms can mess up plans!
And RRR! eek! I could never try it! That first climb scares me so!! Sorry that you didn't enjoy it. But you are a brave soul!! DH and my Ds's like the ride, but it's not one that they go on each trip!

I'm just happy I didn't convince my son to go on with me! He would have hated it.

 

[Lstar311]

Thanks for the report. I am taking my daughter next week for a quick trip before she starts her graduate work. I had forgotten that Fast and Furious was now open (wasn't in December) and that there was a castle show this summer. So glad to know we can do those things now. We, too, like to do the pools in the afternoon, so I'm a bit worried about the rain/storms, but are hoping for the best. So glad you liked your family vacation and look forward to your last morning post. Also....how did you feel about leaving the grandmas behind after the trip was over. Do you think they would have liked it....or was just your immediate family going the best choice?

Have so much fun next week! I hope you get good weather. The only good thing about when it rains and is cloudy/cooler after is that I am happier to be at the park and I don't feel like I am missing out time at the pool.

Hmm, good question about the Grandma's. We took them on many trips to Disney over the last 9 years with the kids. We all have had a great time but I kind of just wanted it to be a trip for the 4 of us as we have never done a vacation like this without asking them to come along. I do feel a little bad that we didn't ask them but I am not sure how much they would have enjoyed the parks/rides. These rides are much more intense than what they are used to at Disney. I would say that they only would have enjoyed a handful of them, if that.

 

[Lstar311]

Day 7-Saturday-Last Day

Saturday was our last day of our trip as we were traveling early on Sunday morning. The flight was a good price but next time I would get a later flight if possible.

So I have mentioned many times in this trip report that I am not a morning person. I have no problems getting up very early for work but when I have some time off I am a total night owl. Hence writing this trip report late at night. So it appeared from what I have read here that Universal is much more laid back and you don't need to go crazy making dining reservations way ahead of time which I hate and usually ended up changing at the last minute on previous trips. So a few days before our trip I thought I should make a reservation for the Minion character breakfast and the Luau. They are both only offered on Saturday and since I only bought a 5 day park ticket it was fine to do them both on the same day as this would be a relaxing resort day. When I called to make the reservation for the Minions the 9:30 time slot that I wanted was full so my choices were 11 or 8. I didn't want to do 11 because I had already booked the Luau for that night and I didn't want to eat a big meal at 11 and then again at 6. So I booked the 8. I didn't want to do it but I knew my daughter would enjoy this. That Friday night we ended up going to sleep later than we should have after going back for just 1 more ride that turned into 3. I set my alarm so we would be up in time. I woke up to my husband frantically yelling at us to get up. It was about 5 min to 8. We scrambled to get up and dressed half asleep and rushed down to the breakfast. Luckily it was at our resort so we really didn't have to go far and ended up not really being late after all. When I had some coffee and was able to figure out what happened I realized that my alarm was set for weekdays only and not weekends!! Luckily we didn't miss it! The characters were good and took time with the kids. Gru was tapping my sons head repeatedly and one of the girls gave him bunny ears in the picture. The food was good at the buffet. I don't think I would do it again unless my daughter wanted to but for somone who is into the Minions and characters it was good.

After breakfast we went to the pool for a while. It started raining but the kids were able to stay in and swim in the rain which of course was a blast for them. I still wanted my daughter to get the milkshake she wanted from Toothsome so we decided to go change and go to Citywalk. My husband, son, and daughter all got milkshakes and I decided I would just finish up everyone's left overs! My husband got something that had hazelnuts in it, I think, and it tasted just like a Rocher candy, it was so good. The kids just asked for plain chocolate. We were sitting outside eating when we saw our friends from home walking by. We had known they were going to be there but hadn't had specific plans to meet up but we were happy to see them. We talked for a while then we went to do some souvenier shopping. My husband found a hat, my daughter and I got keychains, my son found a ball that is connected to a string (just what he needed) and we got some chocolate frogs and other HP candy to bring home to our family. After that we walked back to get ready for the luau.

I was really excited about the Luau and when we did our pre trip clothes shopping trip we all had something Hawaiian to wear. My daughter also thought we should wear our leis that they gave us at check in. We got to the luau and checked in and then went to a seating area to wait to go into the actual dinner area. There was a singer and one dancer there. They called the kids up to learn how to hula. All the kids were shy, no one really wanted to go up. I told my daughter no one wanted to be first but if someone went then other kids would follow. She finally went down and learned the dance, it was really cute. After that, they lined us up to be seated for dinner and gave us another lei. The food was good, there was salad and a roast pig (so delicious) and many other choices that were Hawaiian dishes, I can't remember exactly what they were. I still had a headache all day. There was a seperate buffet for kids with chicken fingers and pizza. Mai Tais were also included in the price as well as beer. The first hour was just the buffet and after that the show started. My daughter went and got us all some desserts to share but we didn't really care for them. My kids are not into fruity desserts and that was what was served. Being that they had milkshakes earlier I don't feel like they missed out on anything! The show was amazing. The hula girls were just incredible. There was also a fire dancer. I was very impressed with the show it was a lot of fun and very different for the kids as they have never been to anything like this before. After the show you could take pictures with the hula dancers. The one we posed with said our outfits looked great so of course I was happy to hear that! It was finished around 8. I wanted to take a ride over to Portofino Bay to see it and since we were dressed up I thought it would have been fun. But my daughter asked if she could go swimming and of course I didn't want to say no as I know how much she loved this pool. My son was done with the pool though so he just brought his phone down and laid on a lounge chair. I watched her swim for a while and then my son and I decided to play ping pong. We had so much fun and played for quite a while. It was a great way to end ou trip. I finally had to give her the 5 min warning to get out as we didn't want to oversleep and miss our flight. Sadly we all went back to the room for our last sleep before heading home.

 

[schumigirl]

What a lovely last day though!!!

The character interaction with Gru is always fabulous.......I’m glad your daughter enjoyed it.

And we only did the Luau once a good few years ago, and we really enjoyed it.........suckling pig was gorgeous and I’m glad to hear it’s still as good........many ask about it.

Your Hawaiian style outfits sound so cool, they do like when folks make an effort..........

Last nights sleep is never fun.........

 

[Lynne G]

So happy to hear you enjoyed both buffets. Thinking about the breakfast one, but I know my DD is not a breakfast food kid. Though the character interaction would be fun, and she would humor me to take a picture with them. She's 16.

Thank you for writing this report. Enjoyed reading it, and was nice to see your family enjoy themselves.

 

[pattyw]

Nice last day! We did the Minion breakfast and also enjoyed the character interaction!

Thanks for the details about the luau. Sounds like fun!

 

[macraven]

Such a great read!

Enjoyed all you had to share with us